August 20, 2012. Prayer Service, August 22, 2012

Matthew 20:1-16


20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

They are not complaining about the wage they received, therefore the wage was fair. 
They are complain ing about the wage the late-hired workers received, therefore the complaint was based in jealousy.

Father Dowling's version: Say there were three brothers and a recession. One brother had a struggling business and the other two had lost their jobs. The one with the business hired one of his brothers, but his business would not support his hiring both. Then the next Sunday he asked both brothers to dinner. At the dinner, he paid the one who had not worked the same amount he paid the one who had.  Can the worker complain about the gift to the second brother? Surely not. Similarly, God's gift of salvation to the late convert can not be gainsaid by the early convert. 

The mobster Dutch Schultz' deathbed conversion and gift  of Extreme Unction by his priest is not a subject of complaint by the faithful.